Wednesday, October 31, 2012

What a great feeling of accomplishment! Yesterday was the last day of the 21 day Beachbody Ultimate Reset program for Marge and I and today we took our 'after' photos and measurements.

I did reach several of my goals, though the greatest gains for me were the new foods, recipes, and ways to cook (and eat!) that we learned and practiced during the Reset.

I lost 4 pounds and 1% body fat. My original goal was to get down to 135, but that clearly would have been too extreme (losing 8 pounds in 3 weeks). I'm very happy to be at a consistent 139 (over the last few days) and also I did get to my 12% body fat goal.

It seemed like my weight was shifting during the Reset and the measurements bore that out. After the Reset I measured 1/2 inch less around neck, 1 inch off my waist, and a surprising 2 inches off my hips. Everything else is about the same.

I hoped to increase my sleeping duration, but there was no change there, my average for the 21 days prior to the Reset was 7 hours a night and during the Reset it was 6.95 hours, so no significant difference.

We were wondering if the Reset would be challenging. Everyone else we know who's done before it reported that they weren't hungry and if they finished they were happy they got through and felt energetic and happy. Most people also said they found the middle week, which is the detox week, challenging, with a variety of physical and emotional symptoms. I'm happy to report that not only were we satisfied by and happy with the meals and our results, but also we had no discomfort or emotional drama during the detox week - so that's a win.

We did find that, like other people before us, we spent more time preparing meals and shopping for fresh ingredients than we were used to. We also realize you can never have enough refrigerator containers, so that goes on the list.

So we feel good, we're both very happy to be able to get back (gradually) to our exercise programs. We have agreed that we have irrevocably changed our eating habits and going forward we're going to incorporate several of the recipes, new foods, cooking methods, spices, and even our eating behaviors because of what we learned during the Reset. And that's something we have in common with everyone we know who has done the Reset - everyone raves about the food and most even don't want to stop eating following the Reset menus and programs.

So yay! We're done. But yay!, we're not stopping or forgetting what we learned. Thank you, Beachbody.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

We're now 2/3 through the 21 day Beachbody Ultimate Reset. So far there has been little stress or drama.

The first week was a stablizing week where we took supplements to alkalize our systems and started a gradual shift from meat and dairy products. That week was easy. The biggest change for Marge and I was switching to drinking distilled water instead of tap or bottled water - the point is to get rid of toxins and also to lessen overall acidity.

Our favorite meal change during week one was to have a microgreen salad for lunch. Here's an example of one of the salads - the ingredients can vary a bit from day today. In the photo below we added a little leftover lentil pilaf from the night before.

During week two we moved to all vegan and grains. Our intention, and the purpose of the program, is not to end up as vegans-for-life, but just for the purposes of the detox and the digestive system reset. I'm sure we'll go back to eating chicken, beef, and fish plus some dairy after the Reset, but perhaps not as often as before because we've discovered so many new healthy, delicious foods and recipes based on the vegan diet.

Week two entails taking a detox supplement three times a day (in addition to some other supplements). It wasn't a harsh routine or cleanse experience (no rushing to the bathroom involved) and I actually liked the taste of the detox powder mixed with water (go figure).

Again there were several new recipes we enjoyed, but our clear
favorite was Edamame and Roasted Corn Succotash. I even had to Google
how to pronounce 'edamame', which looks like lima beans but tastes waay
much better. Marge said last night that this Succotash is her favorite
vegetable dish ever! The photo below is of Marge preparing the Edamame
and Roasted Corn Succotash.

My only negative about doing the Ultimate Reset is that we can't exercise. Because the Reset is 'extreme fitness for your inside', you are told definitely not to engage in strenuous exercise workouts (um, and that includes P90X of course). We are taking daily 20-30 minute walks, twice a day as recommended, but that was part of our daily routine anyway. I miss P90X and confess that I've snuck in a couple pullups and chinups once in a while just for fun.

So now we're starting the third week and I'm looking forward to this experience.

Results-wise, I have lost a few pounds, about 3 so far, and my body fat has decrease 1/2 of a percent. The bigger change is I'm sleeping on average about 1 hour more per night, and that's a good thing. Only once in the past two weeks did I feel hungry and after I had a glass of water that feeling quickly passed.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Stay
tuned as I'm embarking on a new challenge starting today, the
21 Day Beachbody Ultimate Reset.

The photo on this post was my original
Challenge in 2011 when I started having Shakeology for Lunch for 100
days and then added P90X for another 90 Days. In that time period I
started at 181.5 pounds and 25% body fat and ended up at 146 pounds and
13% body fat - oh, and along the way my doctor
took me off cholesterol medicine I'd been on for 11 years. My weight
hasn't fluctuated too much in the last 14 months (this morning I was 143
pounds and 13% body fat), but I still have some goals.

I'm
going to re-weigh myself and take some new pics in the morning but here
are my goals for the 21-day program: I'd like to get back to my high
school weight of 135 pounds (very healthy for my 5'8" height and I'd
also like to get my body fat down to 11 or 12%). I also have some trouble
spots I'd like to reduce, namely some stubborn belly fat and back fat
(what people usually call 'love handles').

Since my system will be
detoxing along the way in the 21 day process while I also learn to eat a
whole lot of new foods (it's not a starvation diet by any means, lol),
I'm also hoping to maybe sleep better. I'm the original
I-don't-need-much-sleep guy, have been since college and in all those
years I had averaged 4-6 hours per night. Now I'm realizing if I want to
get stronger and healthier, and this last year I've been working at
getting my sleep time up to 6-8 hours but it isn't always easy - I'm
hoping by the end of the Reset I'll be sleeping like a baby for a full
7-8 hours every night.

I don't intend to keep a running
commentary here about my experiences and progress (we have a Challenge
group of 6 for that plus we're part of a group of 2,400+ around the
country doing the Beachbody Ultimate Reset at the same time in a
Challenge called Lean and Clean by Halloween). I will report back at the
end, however, with before and after photos and data on weight and body
fat changes, body composition alterations, and how the sleep thing goes.